


Painfully Obvious

by Wigfrid



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Denial of Feelings, F/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Short & Sweet, a tiny bit fluffy?, but silly angst, lying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wigfrid/pseuds/Wigfrid
Summary: Deacon's good at reading people and his partner is being just a little too obvious.(A.K.A Deacon's got feelings but won't admit it.)





	

Deacon is amazing at reading people. Frankly it would be intimidating if he wasn’t also so skilled at playing a crowd. It’s his job, what’s kept him alive all these years. His ability to tell what’s really going on in someone’s head, it’s kept more than a few good people breathing. 

Still, being so gifted can be a heavy burden to bare. Sometimes people hide things for good reasons. A part of him even wishes he could be worse at this but he’s not and the truth is obvious. His friend, his partner in crime… is madly in love with him. 

Not like he can really blame her. 

She started exhibiting tells about a week ago, the day she shot down a Brotherhood chopper with a Fat Man. They ran shouting from the explosion it made on impact, too thrilled to stay quiet, and he only managed to find her through the smoke and ash by following the mischievous laughter she couldn’t seem to hold back. He found her propped up against the wall of a caved in Red Rocket, bleeding from a large gash in her arm and grinning like a drunk woman.

She leaned against him as he administrated the stimpak and he found he was unusually aware of the contact, her hand gripping his arm nearly searing the skin underneath. She was clearly holding onto him a little tighter than necessary, pressing a little closer then she needed to. It was the first sign. 

The first of many.

The days that followed were filled to the brim with her painfully obvious pinning. Honestly, he would feel bad for her but he knows she knows it’s a bad idea. Maybe she scoffed at his little “You can’t trust anyone” stunt but he’s certain it got through to her. Getting close to someone? In this line of work? Bad idea. 

He had to work damn hard to get her to talk to him after that one though, so maybe it hadn’t come across quite how he wanted it to. 

Some people just can’t pick up on the subtleties like he can. Maybe it’s why she hasn’t noticed how easy she’s been to read. 

It’s the little things really but that’s the trick to it, picking up on the most minute of actions. She saves him the last Nuka Cola (Cherry, his favorite, but he has no idea how she knows that) and when she hands it to him, her fingers graze his in just the right way. The way he would do it if he were trying to get info out of someone using his more flirtatious charms. 

He rarely needs to use that trick however, his natural charisma is usually more than most people can handle anyway. 

Two days ago, she was setting up shop at the top of a building, positioning her sniper rifle just so, and her arm kept grazing his. To the untrained observer, it would have looked accidental but the contact was just light enough to send a stray shiver up his spine. 

Sometimes you’ve got to pretend the con is working on you to see what the con man’s main objective really is. You have to let it swoop you up, like you’re the most innocent mark this side of the Commonwealth just enough to see past it.  
And she’s good, really good but the soft exhale a moment later, how she started to chew her lower lip in a way that was just a little too sensual to be natural? That was armature hour. Deacon’s half tempted to show her how it’s done but it wouldn’t be fair. 

She’s trying her hardest to seduce him for a reason, his responding would just be to show off, demonstrate how a pro gets it done. Plus, it would lead her on if she didn’t pick up on the fact that it was a game and, to be honest, he knows she wouldn’t. He really had her going with that activation code. 

She believed him twenty, thirty minutes’ tops.

Still, it’s a fun thought. 

Pitting their wits against each other that is. Deacon would never turn down a chance to show off just how good he is. 

At lying.

Of course. 

She must be getting desperate though because her last couple tricks have been sloppy, so clearly a ploy for his attention that he’s almost embarrassed for her. Tonight they were setting up camp and she walked past him just so, clearly swinging her hips more than necessary. The sort of strut that calls attention to certain aspects of the body, certain curves and soft angles and thick thighs…even if you’re not interested in the slightest. It’s all in the motion. The human eye is naturally drawn to motion.

Deacon learned that move years ago. It’s the oldest trick in the book. 

When she finally sat down beside him, watching the smoke of the fire curl up into the night sky, that’s when it really got embarrassing. 

He could smell her. 

She must have found something during their scavenging today, some old perfume or something because she smelled good. Heady. Maybe wild flowers but that’s too floral. Hmm.

He’s almost tempted to ask but that’s too mean. She’s trying so hard, it would be cruel to point out she’s about as subtle as a gunshot wound. Her hair is twisting in the breeze, little strands whipping around her face and releasing more of that scent until it’s almost stronger than the smoke. She couldn’t have crafted a more romantic scene if she’d tried. 

Which she had.

Clearly.

Maybe this was better played then he thought because he’s almost leaning in, so curious as to what that smell came from (Sort of warm and soothing, like hot bricks) when the breeze picks up and she’s coughing as the smoke swirls her direction, fanning her hand in front of her face and snorting at the situation. 

“Well that was rude. Completely uncalled for.” She’s rubbing her rapidly reddening eyes and smiling, amused with the situation even as tears slip down her cheeks. 

“Hey, smoke follows beauty.” Deacon grins, adjusting his sunglasses despite the sun being nowhere in sight. “So I guess it must be lost.” He leans back. “Because I’m over here.” 

She laughs and punches his arm. A friendly excuse for contact. Oh sole, how obvious can you be?

That night they play cards by the fire and he lets her win, feeling guilty that he just doesn’t feel that way about her, even though that’s the right thing to do. Intermingling is a bad idea in such a dangerous line of work. She should know that. Judging by the way she’s looking at him, bedroom eyes over a handful of cards, a smirk that says playful game but hints at so much more, it’s clear she must have forgotten. 

So, he lets her win.

Seven out of eight times

Actually, he’s not super certain how those last three even happened. It must be his natural instincts taking over, bleeding heart and all that. 

Definitely. 

That night, when she shuffles up the cards and leaves for her own sleeping roll, he can tell she wants to stay. She wants to curl up in his roll, pressed tight from lack of space and lack of any desire to be further apart. She wants him to take her, right there under the moonlight, still smelling like ashes and whatever she’s rubbed into her hair. She wants to be skin to skin, hot lips against his neck and nails down his back. 

She wants him to feel her come, arching beneath him and lids fluttering closed, kiss swollen lips parted. She wants to moan his name.

It’s a little too obvious but she hasn’t been in the game as long as he has and he can’t judge a newbie for not knowing all the ropes quite yet. 

He’ll have to teach her someday but that’ll mean addressing her little crush and that’s a conversation he wants to avoid. There’s nothing to be done about it and, as he watches his partner sleep, a little part of him aches for her.

For the heartbreak she’ll be facing. 

It’s going to be hard for her to cope but she should have known better. She can’t hide it from him, can’t trick the trickster. 

He wishes he wasn’t so good at reading people but it’s clear. 

She’s madly in love with him…and there’s nothing he can do about it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little idea I've had spinning around in my head for a while. The idea of Deacon projecting his feelings instead of actually feeling them himself onto a (supposedly) indifferent Sole sounded so like him. :p I hope I got Deacon's voice down and I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
